[Transcript starts at 0:40]
Hello, hello, hello, my podcast people, and thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my
favorite online business podcast. If you are listening, tuning in, and watching on the day that it
drops, it is Monday, May 4th. Welcome to May and happy belated gotcha day to my best guy,
Rupi.
I think he's somewhere in here. Can you see him? Camera, can you see him? He's sleeping right
there. Always sleeping.
I got him 2020, so six years ago, which makes him seven. Yeah, I got him 2020, and right during
COVID, and he is literally the best thing that's ever happened to me. So happy gotcha day,
belated gotcha day.
I got him on May 3rd. Happy belated gotcha day to my best friend. So today we are talking about
AI and Instagram, largely inspired by some combos that I've been recently having.
And this is one of the many reasons that I love having a podcast, because I get to share my
thoughts unfiltered and uninterrupted. Not that those conversations were interrupted, but I get to
just take all those things I'm thinking about and then just yap away. So speaking of, I will plug my
own shit.
If you want to start a podcast so that you can yap unabashedly, uninterrupted, and you know that
you won't actually do the thing unless you put your money where your mouth is and you also
have someone holding your hand every step of the way, I'm going to drop the link to get on the
wait list for round four of Press Publish. For those of you who don't know, Press Publish is my
eight-week super small, like I capped that thing, it is super small, group coaching program that
comes with a 100% guarantee that you will launch your podcast in eight weeks. When am I
running round four? I don't know, actually.
Probably late summer, early fall, so like September-ish, but we will link the interest list, wait list,
whatever you want to call it, for that. You're not obligated to sign up if you add yourself to it, but
this way you know you won't miss out on the actual launch of it. So let's hop into the episode and
talk about what I think AI is actually going to do to Instagram.
So like I said, this episode was inspired by some conversations that I've been having recently
with friends and fellow creators and just people being like, yo, you're seeing like a million AI, yes,
a million AI on Instagram. And it's like, yeah, you see the uptick, especially in captions and
carousels. And y'all know, I am very much a fan of AI, not every aspect of it, but the technology
itself, yes.
If you don't know, I have a whole-ass second podcast called Prompting Curiosity. It is all about
AI. We just did episode 40, or I think I just recorded episode 41.
I also have a blog over there, a vlog over there, and a newsletter over there for it. So you can
head to, and I built out a whole website for it, and you go to promptingcuriosity.com, you can
check it out. We will link that.
Thank you, Courtney. Thank you, Jojo. Also, thank you, Courtney and Jojo, for linking the interest
list for Press Publish.
But I say this to say I am not some like anti-AI person, but I am also not approaching this
prediction of what AI will do to Instagram as someone who is hugely bullish on AI. I have that
whole other podcast because it allows for nuance, and I can really discuss things and get into it
and get into the implications and ramifications of AI, and also the tech and how to use it. But I am
a reasonable person.
I am not anti-AI by any means. I am anti the Americanization of it and the Ford F-150-ization of it,
of just making it bigger for the sake of making it bigger. But I am also not anti-AI, and I am also
not someone who is very bullish on it, meaning someone that's like, it's the best.
I mean, you should always use it. Use it for everything. I am neither of those.
So my fundamental belief is that AI is great for behind-the-scenes tasks as it relates to your
business, redundant, repetitive tasks. I've built out an automation for my podcast, another
podcast. I am not at all a proponent for using it for client-facing tasks.
I am not a fan at all of using it for creative tasks, where you just have it create something and
generate something for you, right, aka having it right for you. It's bad. It's tacky.
And we can all tell. Stop doing it. I know that not everyone feels this way, clearly, as we are
seeing the significant uptick in AI-generated content flooding Instagram, namely in the form of
captions and carousels.
Tacky, trending, incredibly easy to spot. So if you're doing this, let's knock it off. Okay? Knock it
off.
I do understand the appeal, right? I get that it's content that gets made quickly, and realistically,
you are better off just making nothing at all, right? Using AI for copy will erode trust, and that is
something that you can't get back, right? So it's like, cool, I saved some time now with making
content, and I lost clients forever. I lost perspective clients forever. So what do I think that AI will
actually do to Instagram? I think it's going to drive up demand for human-generated content.
We know. I spoke about this in a past episode, right? There is a high supply, or supply is high for
something, and that supply gets forced on you, and you don't like that supply? Demand for
something else, typically its opposite, increases rapidly. The speed and the volume with which AI-
generated content can be generated and posted means that we will see this backlash, this
pendulum swinging back faster than with other trends.
Another part of this, in my opinion, and why I believe that AI will ultimately increase the demand
for human-generated content is that people inherently respect and value the time that it takes to
create something, especially with the intuitification, yes, I said intuitification, go look it up, real
word, the intuitification of everything, right? Things are just being made so poorly, they're not built
to last, and it's just across the board for everything. So people are also that same pendulum
swing, right, of like supply for shitty, shitty poorly made stuff going up, it's being pushed on us in
every single way, and so our demand, our desire for the opposite, well-made stuff, goes up, and
we're like, yeah, I will pay for a handcrafted this, that, or the other thing, this, you know,
something that time and effort went into. That relates to content as well, right? Why would folks
want to give you their most valuable asset, their time, when you spent no time or effort creating
that content, right? And I am not saying that you need to spend $11 billion hours creating content
in order for it to be consumed, right, in order for people to value it, because the reality is people
can tell and sense and feel effort, including if that effort is talent, and by talent I mean that it's a
skill that you have refined over years and years and years, and this may manifest as an ability to
tell a story in 90 seconds and hold your attention, right, and do it in one take, and it's super
riveting, and you're like, man, I fucking love this, that's talent.
The example, if you folks don't know who I'm talking about, Leigh, what is Leigh's last name? I
don't remember, but she is Old Fashioned Hustle on Instagram, she's L-E-I-G-H, that's her name,
Leigh, but her Instagram handle is Old Fashioned Hustle, Old Fashioned Hustle, best storyteller
I've ever come across in my whole life, and just dynamic and funny and riveting, and just like, she
has a look about her as well that is just like very unique and different and appealing, like she's
just magnetic in general, and just feels like a good person, right, and I don't need her to have like
cinematography and like cinematic visuals, it's just like, I just want the camera on you and tell me
your story, right, and that's effort, it takes effort to do that, because clearly this person's been
refining this skill for many years, so all that to say, again, reiterating the point that AI will
ultimately increase the demand for human-generated content on Instagram. Quick pseudotangent here, if you're an online business and you're feeling some kind of way about Instagram
right now, you're not alone, right, it is not the Instagram of the past, the algorithm pushes and
prioritizes rage-bait and bullshit, and perhaps more than that, if you, like me, are of a certain age,
you're just like, I don't give a fuck anymore, I don't give a fuck, not that I don't give a fuck about
anything, it's just like, I don't give a fuck about this trivial shit, right, you go to posts and you're
like, who cares, I don't even care about this, right, why am I posting about this, and then you're
like, I don't want to deal with the nonsense that may come about because of this, like the
comments that may come about this, so you're like, I don't want to post anything, right, do people
actually care about this, do they need help with this, I get that, if that's you and you're feeling that,
you're not alone, right, the answer, in my opinion, to this, if you want to keep using Instagram
because it's helpful for your business is, one, post when inspiration strikes, do it in that moment,
do not wait, do not save it, and not be like, oh, I can maybe do it later, just do it then, because
that later is not going to come around, you're not going to want to do it later, you're not going to
feel the same way about it, so just do it in the moment, I've always said this, and I will continue to
say that, but especially if you're in that boat of like, fuck this, I don't even care, number two, let
your captions be simple, right, I think people are kind of like overthinking it, and they do the post,
and like, I'm going to write these long-ass captions, let it be simple, and then number three, stay
in your stories, it is the most genuine, most authentic, the most real, just get in your stories and
just talk, right, so big thing here, what not to do, do not go to Instagram, do not take to Instagram
to complain about how you hate Instagram, how would you feel if your favorite clothing company,
or you know, some company you buy from, was complaining about how much they hate having to
market, it's weird behavior, keep that in the group chat, all right, which brings me back to the main
point, main topic of what I think AI is going to actually do to Instagram, all right, like I said before,
it is going to drive up demand for human-generated content, what that content actually looks like,
I cannot say, right, but I do want to highlight that AI will not kill Instagram, it won't, why? Because
folks are on Instagram for escapism, they always have been, right, the desire is only going to
continue to increase, sadly enough to say, as this administration, yes, this is political, absolutely,
as this administration continues to make life worse for most people, as capitalism continues to
make life worse for most people, people are going to continue to seek that dopamine hit, they're
going to continue to seek escapism via Instagram, via social media, why? Because it's right here
in our fucking hand, right, ideally the solution for this looks like policy, better policy, and
community, and going outside, right, but technology is here to stay and the fact that we have that,
you know, dopamine box in our hand means it will always, you know, likely be utilized to some
extent, I use it, you use it, right, we're like, I'm just going to go and just like get a dopamine hit and
like go watch something that's fun, additionally, if this is going to change, if policy is going to
change and we're going to get more community and like going outside, that's great but also
changes do not happen overnight, they don't, and so I'm not saying make your content optimized
for escapism, I am just trying to make a point here that social media isn't going anywhere despite
or because of AI, right, it's like, oh AI is going to kill Instagram because like so much shit is going
to be posted on it and people are going to stop using it, no, like it's going to make people be
annoyed but people are going to continue to like kind of check back in on it and they're going to
be seeking escapism created by humans, right, whatever that escapism looks like, it can be, I
watch a ton of DIY stuff on Instagram, a ton of DIY, that's escapism, we're like, wow, people are
building stuff, like could that lead to sales for them, yeah, as they're teaching something, they
have a book, something like that, sure, all right, but that's, I'm still on social media for sure, right,
so my suggestion as for always is to figure out what is sustainable for you and lean in, there's a
very, you know, real pull, I feel it too, between not wanting to post anything, needing to post about
your business, wanting to post about how fucked up everything is and also wanting to just share
like cat videos, lean in, take a break from Instagram if you need, take a break from posting if you
need, post about your business in a way that feels good, use your voice and share how fucked up
things are and solutions that you have and then definitely share those cat videos and tag me
because I love them, all right, so there you have it, my two pennies on what AI, what I think AI is
going to do, which is actually going to do to Instagram, all right, it's going to drive up demand for
human-generated content, all right, this is not to say, I just want to put this like, you know, caveat
asterisk, this is not to say that you can never use AI to help you with content in some way, right,
whether it's organizing your ideas or coming up with ideas, all right, and I do think that there is
ultimately going to become some level of acceptance regarding what is appropriate AI use, I think
this will come likely as more consumers use it and you realize how helpful it is and also as, you
know, creators that are respected use it and they use it in an honest and trustworthy way, I do
think that, you know, I just want to put it out there but ultimately anything creative and clientfacing that is delivered to you, delivered to your audience without you doing it live, without you
delivering it live, it should not be generated by AI, right, just having it make a carousel for you, like
it's risky business, risky behavior, I would not do that, people can tell, right, if you want to have it
come up with ideas and then you're writing it out and you're just organizing things for you but it's
still your voice, better but I do think that carousels that are just pure text, I think that they are
going to be on their way out just because people can't trust that it's not AI, they can read, they
can tell, they can feel, so just the thought there but the summary here is that AI will drive up
demand for human-generated content, right, your action items, my suggested action items for
you, figure out how to show up in a way that feels good for you, don't use Instagram to complain
about Instagram and lean into creating and generating your own content, all right, I'm gonna wrap
it up there, as always, I really appreciate you letting me yap, like I love being able to share my
ideas in this way, like I said, if you want help sharing your ideas via podcast format, get on the
interest list, we will, I'll either start the program probably late summer, September will probably be
the best bet but reach out if you have any questions and as always, endlessly, endlessly, one
more time, endlessly appreciative for every single one of you, until next time friends, Maestro out!
Watch this episode on YouTube!
Check out my second podcast, Prompting Curiosity
Get in on Round 4 for Press Publish
Follow Leigh: @oldfashionedhussle
Catch me on the socials: Instagram | YouTube | Threads | TikTok | Facebook